We play Settlers of Catan/Pandemic/Carcassonne/Fluxx/Concept/Takenoko on a very regular basis. I also grew up with after-dinner games as the norm, though more often cards than board games because we were always losing the 'bits' out of games and we had hundreds of packs of cards. :D
Concept is a great game - you have to illustrate a keyword using only the prompts on the board so e.g. "fictional" + "person" + "comic" + "male" + "flying" + "red" + "blue" is Superman; "toy" + "person" + "female" + "pink" is Barbie; "movie" + "living creature" + "mouth" was enough for my dad to guess Jaws successfully. :) You start with a "main category" indicator and add more and more refinements as people fail to guess; the guesser and the hinter both get points so it's quite easy for kids even if they can't guess well.
Takenoko is a very cute game involving a panda, a gardener, a lot of bamboo, and luck. You build the board as you go, you irrigate your growing plots and try to achieve particular goals, while the weather [via dice], the panda, the gardener and your opponent(s) help or hinder you. It's a final tally game and you can win simply by having your opponents achieve your goals for you inadvertently or - equally likely - by very carefully implemented strategy, so it's great for all ages.
I also am very fond of the Discworld Ankh-Morpork game, and of Ricochet Robots which involves a lot of logical thinking, but I find it hard to get people to play those with me. :)
(Dominion is, by the sounds of things, exactly like Ascension - I've got Dominion but only read about Ascension.)
no subject
Concept is a great game - you have to illustrate a keyword using only the prompts on the board so e.g. "fictional" + "person" + "comic" + "male" + "flying" + "red" + "blue" is Superman; "toy" + "person" + "female" + "pink" is Barbie; "movie" + "living creature" + "mouth" was enough for my dad to guess Jaws successfully. :) You start with a "main category" indicator and add more and more refinements as people fail to guess; the guesser and the hinter both get points so it's quite easy for kids even if they can't guess well.
Takenoko is a very cute game involving a panda, a gardener, a lot of bamboo, and luck. You build the board as you go, you irrigate your growing plots and try to achieve particular goals, while the weather [via dice], the panda, the gardener and your opponent(s) help or hinder you. It's a final tally game and you can win simply by having your opponents achieve your goals for you inadvertently or - equally likely - by very carefully implemented strategy, so it's great for all ages.
I also am very fond of the Discworld Ankh-Morpork game, and of Ricochet Robots which involves a lot of logical thinking, but I find it hard to get people to play those with me. :)
(Dominion is, by the sounds of things, exactly like Ascension - I've got Dominion but only read about Ascension.)